This invention relates to the quality assessment of product in bulk flow, and particularly to a method generating data relating to the quality of the product in a bulk stream on a food processing system. The system is typically one or both of sorting or packaging. Such a sorting process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,868 (Culling et al). Other applications include distribution and warehousing.
Techniques for sorting products in bulk flow are well established, and typically include a viewing station where reject product is identified, and an ejection station where such reject product is removed from the product stream. However, whereas such sorting removes unacceptable product from the stream, there is additional valuable information to be had regarding the nature of product in the stream, which is itself quite acceptable. For example, some damaged or undersize product can be quite acceptable in the final stream, but it is nevertheless of value to have an indication of what proportion of the final product stream that product forms, as it could in turn provide an indication of the performance of treatment apparatus at an earlier stage in the process. This is particularly applicable to rice, where poor performance of the machinery removing the husks can result in an undesirably high number of broken grains, and errors in storage can result in a higher proportion of cracked grains. The present invention has particularly, but not exclusive application to the quality assessment of rice in bulk flow in a food processing plant, especially in association with the processing stage in which the rice is sorted, with reference to both input and output streams.
In known techniques for the inspection and analysis of a bulk stream of product, samples are taken from the product stream and individual product pieces are mechanically separated from one another in the sample for inspection. This requires the use of additional machinery in the processing equipment. The present invention seeks to provide a means by which such inspection and analysis can be conducted with minimal interference with the related processing equipment.